Unraveling Lizzie
by lizzieemcullen
Summary: Lizzie, Edward's biological cousin, visits the Cullens. Renesmee convinces Lizzie to tell the story of her past to the family. For the first time, Lizzie reveals everything about her past to the Cullens. Lizzie tells of her human life and of her time searching for her missing cousin, Edward.
1. Chapter 1 Arrival

Chapter 1: Arrival

I pull up in front of the beautiful big white house in my 1965 red convertible Mustang as my family came outside to greet me. I can't believe it has already been 11 months since my last visit, which I was late to for my cousin's wedding, and it has been a little over 10 years since I found them, the Cullens. As I pull up, I recognize every face that is there to greet me. All of those faces but one, that is.

_Her name is Renesmee, although we call her Nessie, _my cousin, Edward thinks to me after he read my mind to hear my wonder of who the little one is. _She is Bella's and my biological daughter, like you are my biological cousin. It's not a venomous relation, it's biological._

_Thanks Eddie, for clearing that up for me,_ I think back in response as I smile at everyone and park my car in front of the beautiful house.

When I open my car door to get out, a chorus of "Lizzie!" is shouted at me in happy and excited voices. Everyone starts running to hug me, Emmett and Jasper playfully pushing each other in attempt to hug me before the other. I end up giving a big fat group hug to all of them so Jasper and Emmett's game would be ruined. I laugh when they start whining about me ending their little game.

"I'VE MISSED YOU LIZZIE! SHOPPING IS ALWAYS MORE FUN WITH YOU!" Alice squeals at me, probably the most excited about my visit out of everyone.

"I've missed you too, Ali!" I giggle back to her. It's true that I've missed Alice, what's not to miss about her? I missed her, and her surprisingly large amount of annoyingness for someone so small, like crazy!

Alice fills me in at top speed on what big events in the family I've missed in the past 11 months, in what I call 'The Ali Report' but I say the T in report as a silent T to poke fun at Steven Colbert. When Alice is done with 'The Ali Report', I bend down next to Renesmee so she can look me in the eyes if she wants.

"Hello Renesmee," I say as sweetly as possible to the shy little girl. "I'm your second cousin Lizzie."

"Hi Lizzie," she says shyly. Then, she hugs me like she's know me all of my human life and all of my existence. As if she knows my story and what I went through when I was human while Edward had disappeared. And, of course, I return the loving, caring hug.

Next thing I know, my 'Welcoming Committee' is dragging me inside the house and into the living room. Once they have me seated on the couch, everyone is asking me questions about things like my latest adventures and what I've been up to since I last saw them during my visit for Bella and Edward's wedding. And of course, my favorite little annoying pixie of a vampire asks me if I bought her the designer shoes from Paris, France that she's been wanting. I answer all their questions as quickly as possible, telling Alice that it's for me to know and her to find out in response to her question about the shoes which just makes her pout since she isn't able to get a vision for some reason unknown to her.

Then little Renesmee asks me a question, it's the one question I've only been asked once by the others and I hadn't answered it then. But I'll answer it now, for Renesmee.

"Lizzie, will you please tell me about your past? I want to know more about you…" she says, trailing off at the end of her sentence.

"Sure sweetie, I'll tell you. That is, if the others don't mind…" I say trailing off at the end. And because I haven't told anyone my story before, no one objects to this.

"Ok," I begin, somewhat dreading reliving the bittersweet memories that this long story brings. "My story begins back on December 13, 1901…"


	2. Chapter 2 Human memories

Chapter 2: Human Memories

"Isn't that the year we were born?" Edward interrupts. "So you're starting from the very beginning?" He sounds nervous while he's asking the last question, I wonder why…

"Yes, Edward. Now, hush up so I can tell the story!" I half snap at him.

"Sorry," he whispers with a small grin and chuckling at both my irritation from his interruption and at the frowns he was getting from many of the other members of the family for his question that had a pretty obvious answer.

"Ok, I was born on December 13, 1901 to William Masen and Sarah Jane Scott. They named me Elizabeth Elise, after my aunt Elizabeth and my grandmother Elise. My aunt Elizabeth was Edward's mother and she and my mother happened to had been best friends since they were 5 years old, so even if she weren't related to me she'd still symbolically be my aunt," I say.

_I didn't know that… _Edward thinks to himself.

_True story, bro, _I think back with a smile which makes Edward chuckle.

"I was nick-named Lizzie when I was a baby, sometimes people would call me by a nick-name based off of my middle name for example 'Lisee-pop', which often annoyed me so I'd ask them to call me Lizzie instead. I prefer being called Lizzie over being called Elizabeth since our family had called me Lizzie my whole life. I always put my name down as Elizabeth on legal forms and those types of things though. That's why I still go by Lizzie today," I say with a small smile.

"I grew up in Chicago, in a house that was only three blocks away from Edward's childhood home. When Edward and I were little, we spent so much time together and we weren't good at making friends with other kids both at school and around the neighborhood that he and I were each other's best, and only, friends. We did almost everything together! Even when I was eight and was sick, Edward cheered me up with a game of chess," I continue as my small smile turns into a huge grin with that wonderful memory, "Edward was six months older than me and he was my cousin as well as best friend, but that didn't stop him from acting like an overprotective older brother for me sometimes. I loved that about him too, even though sometimes like when I was 12 he scared away the boy from school that I had a crush on. Years later I found out that the boy I had like that Edward had scared away had had a crush on me too until my overprotective cousin scared him away. Now THAT was humiliating! Good luck Renesmee, I bet he's gonna be like that when you stop aging at this quick speed and you go to high school," I say, muttering the last sentence under my breath so no one could hear.

"I still loved him for being over protective like that," I add, which makes a huge grin shine on Edward's sweet, protective, face.

"One of my earliest human memories is from the summer that I was six and Edward had just turned seven years old. It was too hot outside for us to play, and we got very bored inside so we went shopping with my mother. We found some cool games while we were shopping and I found two demitasse tea cups that I loved, but my mother told me that I could only get one of them. So, I had Edward help me choose which one I should get and he said I should get the blue and white one. I still have that tea cup, you know," I say, glancing over at Edward with a smile spreading on my face.

The look that shines on Esme's face makes it evident that she thinks that was so sweet.

"On my 13th birthday," I continue, "Edward and his parents gave me a beautiful golden heart shaped locket. I ended up putting mine and Edward's family Christmas photo from that year inside it and I haven't taken it off even once since they gave it to me! It has been on its original chain around my neck since December 13, 1914."

I then pull the locket out from underneath my blouse and show the gorgeous heart shaped pendant to the family. They all think it was super sweet that I never took it off and the ladies, along with little Renesmee, think my locket is beautiful. I open the locket to display the picture inside and it captures everyone's interests, especially Edward, Bella and Renesmee's.

"Wow. Everyone is in this photo…" Edward comments in awe.

"Yep, even our grandparents are in the photo," I inform him before pointing at the photo and saying who everyone in the photo was in relation to me and Edward. The whole family looks at the photo with amazement, some like Bella and Nessie are glad that they are having the chance to see what Edward's family looked like.

"Back to my story," I say, closing the locket and letting it resume resting against my chest. "I was totally devastated when Edward and his parents were hospitalized because of the influenza since we were so close. I visited them in the hospital almost every day. I would have been there every day if it weren't for my parents being control freaks, keeping me from going without them or my aunt Claire. My aunt Claire was my mother's sister. To this day, I don't know why they didn't want me going there all by myself. On those few days each month that I wasn't there, it was because none of them were able to bring me there."

"I somewhat remember you visiting me in the hospital," Edward says at the same time as Carlisle says, "I remember you visiting them in the hospital perfectly, and how upset you look every time you came in."

"Yeah," I reply to Carlisle before smiling at Edward. "It was a sad time for the whole family when my uncle Edward Sr. died in January of 1918. Then the sadness was repeated when my aunt Elizabeth died in September of that same year. The difference between my sadness for each of those times is one, I was closer to my aunt Elizabeth than I was to my uncle Edward Sr. The reason I was closer to her was that he was almost never home because he was either at work or on a business trip so Eddie and I both weren't very close to his father. The second reason that I took the unfortunate events of my aunt's death harder when it happened in September is at the same time of her death, and I wasn't able to be there on that day because no one could bring me, my best friend big brother like cousin supposedly died."

While I'm saying this, those sad memories made me start to cry dry tears. Edward can't stand to see me cry those dry vampiric sobs, so he gets up from his seat in one of the arm chairs next to his beautiful wife Bella to sit next to me and hold me in a hug until my tears cease.

_Thanks for comforting me right now, Eddie…_ I think to him with a tiny smile starting to creep up on my face as I hug him back, refusing to let go.

_You're welcome Liz. I'll always be there for you now, you know. Love you, Lizzie-boo,_ he thinks back as a sly smile started to appear on his face at calling me that old nick-name, Lizzie-boo, he gave me when he was five years old.

_Thanks Eddie. Love you too, Eddie-boo,_ I answer with a smile.

"It took the hospital and my family a whole year to drill it into me that their story was true. I had always been a fairly stubborn child and after Edward's disappearance in 1918 there had always been a part of me that knew he was alive. You see, my family was easier to trick than I was so they immediately believed the hospital's story. The hospital told us that Edward was in fact dead but there must have been some sort of mix up between Edward's corps and another dead patience's body. That they must have looked a lot alike, blah blah blah. That's where I stopped listening every time, so I don't know what else they said. The idea that they mixed up Edward with someone else was just the stupidest idea I had ever heard back then because Edward's beauty is just so great, it can't be compared." I say.

Bella nods in total agreement at that statement about her husband's beauty, just like I knew she would.

"I never completely gave up hope that he was still alive, but I did get very depressed by him vanishing like that. When we were pretty little visiting our grandmother one summer, I had had him promise that if the day ever came that we were separated that I would get to at least get to give him a proper goodbye hug first. I didn't get to have that goodbye hug before he disappeared," I say as the flow of dry sobs increased greatly.

_Sorry,_ Eddie thinks to me as he holds me in another big hug.

_You're forgiven, Eddie. It's not your fault anyway and I don't blame anyone for it. If that hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here hugging you today. It was Fate that decided that would happen, and personally I'm glad it did… _I think backwith a smile, very grateful that we are the only mind readers in the house so nobody else can butt in on our mental conversation.

"It took so long for them to convince me because of my stubborn mind. That stubborn mind of mine made me need visible proof to believe that my cousin was dead," I say, making some of the members of the family smile at my stubborn mind. "While the hospital and my family tried to convince me that their story was true, I tried to keep my hopes up and keep my guard up to not let anyone else make a place in my heart that they could hurt if they left without a goodbye or just left at all. Once they finally got their story through my thick head, I lost most of my hope, almost all of it in fact. And when my hope disappeared, full on depression hit me. Life just wasn't the same. It was like I forgot how to be happy and what it was like to be happy. No one wanted to be around me, and I don't blame them for that though. I had became all doom and gloom, so why would anyone want to spend time with me?"

"Poor Lizzie," Renesmee says, sitting down in her dad's lap to hug me.

"Thanks for your support Nessie," I say, hugging her back. "Every time I had been happy before I had been spending time with my favorite cousin. So, when he vanished, it seemed to me that all the happiness in the world went with him.

"Not too long after my nineteenth birthday, my parents dragged me on a camping trip in the south west of Michigan. By that time, the worst of my depression was over. But I was still in an emotionless state where I wouldn't smile and was definitely very sad and a little bit insane, though everyone was fine with that me because I was better than how I had been previously. One day of the camping trip, my father had gone down to the lake to do some fishing and he forgot his lunch up at the cabin. When my mother saw that he forgot his lunch, she asked me to bring it to him. Of course, I did as I was told and brought him his lunch. On my way back up to the cabin, I had to go through the woods. Now, I didn't know the path as well as my parents did and I had gotten lost on my way back to the cabin before. But before my father had been only a few yards away and had been coming back to the cabin with me. This time, I was walking alone. That day my life changed. All because I was lost in the woods. That was when I was attacked by a vampire." I say, concluding that section of the story of my existence.

I look out the window and notice that it's getting late, then take a mental note that Renesmee is still half human so she does need to eat and sleep.

"I'll continue the story tomorrow, I still need to bring my things inside and I can tell that Nessie needs to eat dinner and get a goodnights rest," I say.

A lot of whining is made in response to that, mostly coming from Renesmee and Emmett. Emmett whining about that cracked me up. Emmett isn't the only adult upset that I won't continue now, though. It takes quite some convincing, not to mention the extra impact I had with my words in my process of getting them to agree because of my power similar to Jasper's, but I finally got the whole family to agree that we need to take a break from the story.

Once we came to an agreement to adjourn, Edward and Bella brought Nessie to the kitchen to get her something for dinner while Emmett was helping me unpack my car. Every time we brought in some of my bags and set them down next to the stairs, Alice started ripping through them looking for the French designer shoes she had been promised while gripping about not being able to have a vision of which bag they were in. It's hilarious to see her rummaging through my stuff for those shoes!

"Edward's old room can be your room for the duration of your visit," Esme says to me, also taking amusement in Alice's antics.

"Thanks," I say to her with a smile on my face. I pick up some of my bags that Alice has already searched through and zip upstairs to Edward's old room to put their contents away. When I reach Edward's old room, I put away my things at vampire speed and then run back downstairs only to be tackled by a pleased, squealing, and jumping up and down, Alice. I laugh when she tackles me in a hug with the French designer heels still one in each hand.

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" the hyper sounding pixie squeals, still hugging me and bouncing from happiness.

I'm laughing very hard at her antics when I say: "You're welcome, Alice!"


End file.
